The public demand for the genuine taste of fresh brewed coffee speaks for itself. This demand has resulted in the widespread purchase and use of gravity-drip coffee-makers such that these devices have become common household appliances. However, a residual demand exists for a disposable coffee-brewing apparatus adapted for the preparation of a single cup of coffee.
Typical gravity-drip coffee-makers involve a disposable filter element mounted in some type of reusable basket-shaped housing for retaining a measured amount of coffee grounds. This housing/filter combination is suspended above a receptacle in a frame so that the filter/grounds combination can receive water poured therethrough and dispense a coffee beverage. Such coffee-makers can also include an integral electric water heating and dispensing unit. A variation on this scheme provides a rigid filter frame for mounting directly on a receptacle, avoiding the necessity for a seperate frame for suspending the filter basket.
Although the gravity-drip brewing method is well known and generally well accepted, existing devices are not well adapted to producing a single serving of fresh coffee. When a single serving of coffee grounds is placed in the basket of a conventional drip coffee maker, the water being filtered therethrough passes through such a thin layer of coffee grounds, the resulting cup of coffee is very weak. Furthermore, the inconvenience of measuring ground coffee and cleaning up used coffee grounds for a single serving can present a significant deterrent for coffee drinkers who are willing to accept a lower quality beverage by turning to the ease and convenience of instant coffee rather than be bothered by brewing a single cup of fresh coffee.
Coffee-brewing devices known in the art have recognized the desirability of providing a single cup of fresh brewed coffee by means of a disposable brewing apparatus. The present art in disposable coffee-brewing apparatus disclose devices which are mounted directly on a receiving receptacle, as for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,615,708 and 4,715,271. As a result, the present art requires the use of a receptacle having a predetermined diameter corresponding to the diameter of the coffee-brewing apparatus or must rely on a support apparatus having a variable dimension which is interactive with the receptacle for supporting the coffee-maker thereon, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,560,475 or 4,715,271. Such systems are very unstable and highly susceptible to tipping due to the force of the water being poured into the filter. Thus, it is desirable to provide a disposable coffee-brewing apparatus for positioning over a receptacle such that the support housing thereof is independently supported on the same surface which supports the receptacle.